Topaz Studio 1.0.7 Crashes

@JoeFedric-TL please see my responses to your post below:

“I’ve replied to Michael’s ticket. It looks like he went from a Radeon HD 6450 to an RX 550. As you can see here, the upgraded card is about 10x (900%) faster than the card he was using:”

Thanks for replying to my ticket after I figured it out on my own.

“I’ve made this argument ad nauseam about our OpenGL applications. If you use a slow card, expect bad performance.”

You make it sound like I should know this. Why should I? If it was so obvious that my Studio non-performance was possibly due to a slow card, why wasn’t that pointed out to me at any time? This statement should be put in your requirements page.

“We cannot build software that makes slow hardware fast. It sounds like the application was timing out, because your graphics card was too slow to return your image to the application, before the operating system stepped in and stopped the application. This is something we cannot really plan for, because the operating system and hardware are what create this issue.”

Thanks for pointing this out after I figured out the solution. Topaz asked for my system information. I sent it twice. I kept asking what I needed for my system hardware/software to reasonably work with Studio. I never got an answer.

“We did find a problem with the All and Trending preset list, which was addressed in 1.0.8 with a hotfix. You claimed in your ticket that 1.0.8 did not help enough to render the Studio application useful to you. This means that your GPU was 100% to blame for the crashes, rather than our application. The update to 1.0.9 provides a permanent fix to the All and Trending preset lists: pagination.”

Again, thanks for pointing out to me the GPU was 100% to blame after I figured it out on my own. By the way, you keep calling my issue a “crashing” issue. It wasn’t, it was a “Not Responding” issue that never went away unless I forced the program to close.

“Unfortunately, we don’t really have a way at the moment to prevent you from loading images that are too large for your graphics card to process fast enough to prevent the operating system from interfering with the application, causing it to crash.”

Evidently it’s my fault that the “too large” images I used with v1.0.5 worked fine with Studio and my old card, but caused the “Not Responding” condition in subsequent versions of Studio.

“As long as you meet the minimum requirements, it will run. There’s a reason we list minimum requirements, recommended requirements, and optimal requirements. Minimum is the absolute minimum to get Studio installed. Recommended is what we recommend you use to enjoy the product. Optimal is where you can start seeing near-instant processing in a number of our products, including Studio.”

I actually like this explanation. You make it sound like I or others should already know this. I didn’t know this. It would be good if it was provided in your requirements pages to set expectations for Topaz users. It doesn’t explain why I was reasonably happy with my old card when using Studio until after V1.0.5.

“Anything that performs poorly between Minimum and Recommended is to be expected.”

Put this in your requirements page too. It seems like this could have been pointed out to me after I sent in my system information the first time, as requested by Topaz. It would have prevented a lot of aggravation and wasted time for me.

“We do respond as soon as possible. I’m just one person. I know you don’t want to hear an excuse or a sob story, but the fact of the matter is, I run support all by myself. We’re getting another agent to help cover the volume we receive next Tuesday, but I’ve been at this solo for 2+ years.”

“We have never ignored a customer, people always get responses. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, its never enough ¯\ _ (ツ)_/¯”

“As soon as possible” must be a relative term. I count 5 emails I sent to you starting July 9th until you finally replied yesterday, July 26, after I already figured out a solution on my own. I think that speaks for itself. Regardless of never ignoring a customer, I certainly felt ignored, but I get the feeling that’s my fault too.

It’s disappointing to me to hear that you are the only person to handle support. I truly want Topaz Labs to be successful. I want you personally to be successful. I’ve purchased and been using all of Topaz Lab’s products since 2009. I think Topaz makes great image processing software and I want Topaz to be very successful doing that well into the future. I’ve never had technical issues with Topaz products until now, so have never had a need to use Topaz support before. Perhaps one-person support worked before Studio, but to me doesn’t seem to be working now. You should be given the resources needed to be successful at your “Customer Happiness” job and to keep Topaz successful. To me that means being more responsive and helpful than what I experienced. Hopefully, adding a person to help you out will make the difference. Hopefully, Topaz Labs’ leadership will make the necessary adjustments to the Studio business model to keep its customers happy, considering what appears to me to be a rocky start.

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I understand your position on all the points made above. Unfortunately, nearly all the frustration you experienced can be traced back to the fact that I couldn’t get to your ticket fast enough.

I have a lot of confidence in our new incoming agent, and will be working to make sure we don’t have any significant time delays going forward. I’ll admit, running support solo is very hard. Often, I’m juggling upwards of 300-500 ongoing conversations, and trying to keep the development team informed on new issues being reported to us. While our company size is small, our product offering is pretty large. This means most changes that we make take a while to actually make happen. I expect our new hire to be up to speed in about 4 weeks time, but I’m just now catching up conversations so that people aren’t waiting more than 3 or 4 business days to hear back from me.

And I won’t ignore that the launch of Topaz Studio has had some issues. I’ve personally corrected orders with incorrect user information, and refunded upwards of 400 orders (again by hand) for purchases where coupon codes did not apply. Then, we had application update problems (which have mostly been resolved). Not to mention the sheer volume of the response we received from the release. In the 45 days following the May 23rd release of Topaz Studio, we received 5,150 tickets. All of these things rolled into one made for a tough experience for some folks. However, we never stop working on solutions to the problems we’re aware of, and we’re always on the lookout for new problems.

Our goals moving forward will be to ensure that every person receives a reply within one business day of sending us a message, whether they just submitted the ticket, or they’re waiting on our 5th/6th email to solve the issue. Consistently, the inability to answer requests fast enough, has been causing issues with customers. I am dedicated to fixing that problem, and that starts with our new team member starting this coming Tuesday. No one is more ‘ready’ for this help than I am. Trust me.

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@JoeFedric-TL, I get that you’re overwhelmed, and rightly so. Thanks for the added explanation, it helps put it in perspective. In hindsight, I wonder if the gun was jumped and Studio released too soon. It’s water under the bridge now and I really do hope Topaz leadership provides you all the resources you obviously need moving forward.

Just a suggestion from the perspective of a customer, me: until the new person is fully integrated and things are running more smoothly, perhaps you could provide some of your explanation above as a caveat in responses or the start of tickets, to help temper customer expectations. That might go a long way with customer good will. Just a thought.

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I also felt that Studio was not ready for Prime Time. I do hope Topaz does hire more help with customer support, with the volume of tickets you mentioned above they should have been more prepared and ready to provide better customer service then and in the future. I have always felt that Topaz DID provide very good customer service, but lately… not so much? Hoping for a better future ahead.

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Hi @Mond. I don’t know if you’ve been following this topic. If not I thought I would point it out. Your problems might have already been resolved as part of a support ticket or Studio update versions. In that case you can ignore this. I don’t know what your computer system configuration is or what graphics card you are using; however, if you are still experiencing limitations as you describe, perhaps it is due to a graphics card that is between “Minimum and Recommended” as described by @JoeFedric-TL, which is “expected” to perform poorly with Studio. So far, my upgrading to a graphics card above “Recommended” has solved my issues.